The Musca-S1 test chip demonstrates capabilities of FD-SOI body
biasing and eMRAM technology to be used in SoC designs for highly
energy-efficient IoT devices

Test chip and development board are expected to be available for
evaluation to IoT device designers by Q4 2019

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today at the Samsung Foundry Forum, Arm, in collaboration with Samsung
Foundry, Cadence, and Sondrel, demonstrated the first 28nm
fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) embedded MagnetoResistive
Random Access Memory (eMRAM) IoT test chip and development board. The
Musca-S1 is designed to offer more choice to IoT designers in their
system-on-chip (SoC) development journey. Designers can now easily
implement more secure, holistic IoT solutions, enabling them to focus
more on core product differentiation and accelerating time-to-market.

“The promise of a world transformed by a trillion connected devices is
not far in the future, but for IoT devices to scale we must continue to
put a range of technology options in front of designers to test and
evaluate,” said Gus Yeung, VP, GM and Fellow, Physical Design Group,
Arm. “This collaboration has yielded a true end-to-end solution that
ensures IoT designers can prototype their product designs from
device-to-data security.”

Relative
to previous Musca solutions, the Musca-S1 test chip board now
includes testing and evaluation of new eMRAM technology for reliable,
low-power and secure device development through secure memory
implementation. eMRAM technology offers advantages over traditional
embedded flash (eFlash) memory technology, as it can easily scale below
40nm process technology, giving SoC designers more flexibility to scale
their memory needs based on the memory and power requirements of various
use-cases.

Musca-S1 test chip demonstrates a combination of on-chip power control,
Samsung Foundry’s Reverse Body Biasing (RBB) and eMRAM non-volatile
memory power shutdown, allowing for testing and evaluation of new
classes of highly energy-efficient, controlled IoT devices. And for the
first time on Samsung Foundry silicon, designers will have the
opportunity to run Arm® Mbed™OS as well as
test device and data management capabilities using the Arm Pelion™
IoT platform.

By combining Arm IP and software solutions on a single board, IoT
designers can test and evaluate Arm’s end-to-end secure IoT solution,
showcasing highly energy-efficient and secure IoT at scale.
Additionally, the Musca-S1 test chip board can further reduce costs and
time-to-market by giving designers the flexibility to repurpose the
reference design for future products.

The Musca-S1 test chip and development board is on display at Samsung
Foundry Forum North America in San Jose, CA as part of an air sensor IoT
application demo, featuring the device and data management capabilities
of the Arm Pelion IoT platform.

The Musca-S1 will be available in limited quantities in Q3 2019, and is
targeted for loan to customers in Q4 2019. Contact Arm for more
information on the Musca-S1 test chip and development board.

“This collaboration with our SAFE Partners Arm, Cadence and Sondrel
brings the Arm Musca test chip and development board to Samsung Foundry
silicon for the first time. The combination of Musca-S1 and working
28FD-SOI silicon reassures IoT designers they can achieve faster
development, deploy body biasing and integrate eMRAM technology in their
next-generation IoT devices for enhanced energy efficiency and IoT
security.”

“The Musca-S1, the industry’s first silicon-proven 28nm FD-SOI eMRAM and
Cadence® IP-based IoT SoC, was implemented using the Cadence digital and
signoff full-flow solution, which supports back biasing from synthesis
through signoff, including physical verification and DFM signoff. In
addition, the Musca-S1 was verified using the Cadence Verification
Suite, with protocol compliance verified with Cadence VIP and memory
models. Through our collaboration with Arm, Samsung and Sondrel, we’re
enabling mutual customers to confidently
create power-efficient MRAM-enabled IoT edge-devices with built-in
security and connectivity capabilities, as well as further accelerating
innovation in emerging application areas.”

Graham Curren, CEO, Sondrel

“Musca-S1 is not just a design solution to secure internet connected
devices and manage them at scale, but a simple and safe route to market
based on a collaboration between semiconductor industry leaders. It
addresses products from the simplest to the most intelligent edge node
devices, and brings together the best combination of tools, technology,
processes and people to set a new standard for robust IoT device design.”

About Arm

Arm technology is at the heart of a computing and connectivity
revolution that is transforming the way people live and businesses
operate. Our advanced, energy-efficient processor designs have enabled
intelligent computing in more than 130 billion chips. More than 70% of
the world’s population are using Arm technology, which is securely
powering products from the sensor to the smartphone to the
supercomputer. This technology combined with our IoT software and
end-to-end connectivity, device and data management platform enables
customers to derive real business value from their connected devices and
data. Together with our 1,000+ technology partners we are at the
forefront of designing, securing and managing all areas of compute from
the chip to the cloud.